With voting, Texas has always held racial discrimination. This goes back into the history of Texas and “their immigrant histories”, as Jennifer Lee (Conley) states. Now, majority of the population in Texas consists of the minority groups, Latinos, African Americans, and Asians. Conley even points out that Texas is one of the four states where whites are not the majority. So what could the problem be? A three-judge panel found that GOP members have been manipulating the district lines so they can weaken the power of the minorities. They have been helping bring power to white Republicans but take away from black Democrats, so that the voting power of the Latino community is basically useless. For example, a city business center was removed from a district held by a black Democrat, and was moved to a district held by a white Republican.

Due to the population growing rapidly, the state was issued four more seats in the House of Representatives. However, 10 of the 32 representatives are minorities. “…Latinos and blacks were not likely to win even one more seat in Congress under the plan drawn by the Texas Legislature, the judges said.” There is a gap growing between the Latino voters and the Latino lawmakers, so the judges know that something has to be done. It’s a parallel to the wealth gap that is discussed in the book, because that has historic ties as well. It seems that the racism today is only due to racism in the past. People are continuing to discriminate which doesn’t allow any room for improvement, or a chance to break free from the old.

Now, Texas has a chance to redraw those lines, literally. If all goes well, Texas lawmakers will have to redraw the district lines more equally, and elect more minority legislators. This levels the playing field and gives the minorities a chance to govern.